She grasped his hands in hers and he felt the usual tingle. “Quickly, Hugo! There is no time to hesitate! You must pass through now!”
Willow turned to the sudden commotion coming from the provisional Arch and she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. “Hugo?”
Hugo stood beneath the arch, trying to focus on what was going on around him. A man dressed in an orange robe approached him from behind some kind of console. Taking his arm, the man ushered him away from the active arch.
Willow practically skated across the floor, vaguely aware of someone shouting out the order to close the Arch down. She reached Hugo, her face a mixture of confusion and disbelief. “What are you doing here? How? How are you even here?”
“I have no idea,” he said, shaking his head. “I barely made it through. The blue beam snatched me up when I was waiting for you and then I nearly died out there when I was on my way here …”
More Consuli had now gathered around Hugo and Willow.
Willow’s head spun. If Hugo was here on Thera, Maliceius must have caused a lot of damage when his Vraag breached Thera’s macasphere. She felt a wave of panic go through her. Were her parents okay? And Hugo’s? What about the Sanctuary? What was going on back home? She stood there staring at Hugo, paralysed by the thoughts racing through her mind.
From the back of her mind she could hear the voice of Augustus Moon lecturing the class on “how to keep calm in a crisis.” First, assess the situation … use all of your senses … focus … then act. And breathe. Remember to breathe. She inhaled instinctively and came back to the present moment. “Are you okay?” she finally asked.
One of the Consuli was checking Hugo’s eyes to see if he was in shock. “I am Tolin Medoba,” he said. “Do you know where you are? How do you feel?”
Hugo gazed into the Consuli’s purple eyes. “I feel a bit weird, but I’m fine. And I’m pretty sure this is Mondria.”
“Good,” Tolin Medoba replied. “What is your name?”
“Hugo Babbington.”
“He’s my Helper back on Earth,” Willow told the Consuli. “How is he here?”
The Consuli looked at them both. “That is a good question which I am unable to answer. Please, come with me so that we may determine the significance of this event.”
Willow shook her head from side to side and mouthed “See you later” to Jessie and Atlas, and followed Tolin Medoba out of the portal room with Hugo and Avari in tow.
“It seems the Vraag have tampered with the Doorways from both sides,” Avari said.
“Yeah. Hugo is evidence of that.” Willow touched Hugo’s arm. “Are you okay? Really?”
“I’m fine. Just a bit freaked out – but probably not as much as our parents are right now.” Hugo looked over to Avari. “You must be Avari?”
“Yes. I am pleased to meet you, Hugo. Willow has told me much about you.”
“All good, I’m sure,” he grinned.
They turned down another hall and eventually stopped in front of a blue door. “Please, wait in here,” Tolin Medoba said. “A member of the High Council will be with you shortly.”
The moment the door closed, Willow launched in. “What happened Hugo? How did you get here? And what do you mean you nearly died on the way? And how are Mum and Dad?”
“Actually, I need to sit down first. I’m feeling a bit dizzy.” Hugo sat heavily in one of the armchairs.
“It is the normal response when you arrive on Thera for the first time,” Avari explained.
“Except that my arrival here is nowhere near normal,” he replied, resting his head back. He looked pale.
“That is true,” she said. “I recommend that you take some deep breaths and close your eyes for a time, Hugo, so that your body and vision can adjust more readily.”
“Thanks for the tip.” Hugo closed his eyes.
Willow, impatient for news from home, sat in silence while Hugo adjusted to Thera’s frequencies.
Eventually, he reopened his eyes. He looked over to the vase of bright flowers sitting on a side table. “That’s better. My eyes aren’t so dazzled by the colours anymore. Now, to answer your questions, Willow … honestly, it all happened so fast, I’m still processing the fact that I’m here.”
“I’m mega shocked,” Willow said. “Like I can’t even begin to think how screwed up things must be for this to happen?”
“I know.” Hugo sat up in his chair and relayed everything that had occurred since Willow left. “I have no idea why I could suddenly see the Woodfayre in the Sanctuary. Dad said it was super rare – but that it was possible. And the Wood Folk are all in some kind of trance with the Sanctuary, trying to stabilise the portal.”
Avari shook her head. “From our history, I am aware of only three previous occasions when a Helper has displayed the same abilities as a Light Keeper. And each time was during a period of unrest. It seems the time of broken dreams is already upon us.”
“What? What does that mean?” Hugo asked.
“On our world, Avari, we use a method called ‘cushioning the blow’,” Willow told her.
Avari gave Willow a curious look. “I am not aware of this method.”
“It means we break big news gradually,” Willow explained.
“Thank you, Willow. I will take more care with this transition. I apologise, Hugo, for not cushioning the blow.”
“No need, but will one of you fill me in? What’s the ‘time of broken dreams’? Sounds as bad as it sounds,” he said.
Though Willow had told Hugo about the Prophecy, she hadn’t mentioned the clues that they had gathered to date. She decided to keep those details on Thera. That way, Hugo and her parents wouldn’t keep telling her to be careful all of the time. She had her share of that from them already. Here on Mondria, at least, they allowed her free rein.
“It turns out,” Willow said, “that when the changes to the Protocol were activated, Maliceius began to tamper with the Light Streams even more. He’s been doing it for months, but the Dream Keepers have been able to stay ahead of him mostly. Until now.”
The door opened and High Chancellors Timboon and Antoy entered.
Willow, Avari and Hugo stood up from their seats.
“Please, sit down,” High Chancellor Antoy said.
Hugo could barely believe he was in the presence of a High Chancellor in Mondria. He retold his experiences in the Sanctuary up to his arrival on Thera. “I’m sorry if I’ve caused any problems by arriving here, but as you can see, I had no control over it.”
“Yes. Quite.” High Chancellor Timboon regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. “It seems the Ancients are preparing for Maliceius’s next moves. It is not an accident that you are here, Hugo.”
Hugo’s brows were raised. “You mean they planned for this to happen?”
“It would be more accurate to say that the Ancients have planned meticulously, and your arrival has perhaps been triggered by the events here on Thera,” he replied.
Willow looked surprised. “Really?”
High Chancellor Antoy nodded. “As travel has been suspended once more, you must all stay within Mondria until further notice.” He looked upon Willow. “Finding the Book left by the Ancients has become critical.”
“Avari and I were on our way to the History Room when all of this happened,” Willow said. “We’ll go there now.” She was about to stand up and make her way to the door when she stopped herself. “Chancellor, can you please answer a question for me? Why would the Ancients make the Book so difficult to find?”
“Your question is reasonable, Willow,” High Chancellor Antoy replied. “When the Ancients hid the Book thousands of tarons ago, they were planning for all events – including the possibility of Mondria being compromised by Maliceius. They could not risk the Book being found by him, or his Underlings. The Ancients took many precautions.”
“Perhaps the Ancients knew that the Book could only be found under these circumstances,” High Chancellor Timboon added. “Sometimes th
e grandest insights and breakthroughs emerge from the most trying times.”
They set off for the History Room and Hugo immediately began asking questions, although his gaze was darting all around him in amazement as they went. “I still can’t really believe I’m here.”
“Don’t worry, neither can I,” Willow said. “So, you should know, the city’s been in lock-down for some time. And I’ve seen the Vraag.” She glanced skywards. “They’re actually flying around outside.”
Hugo swung his head towards the ceiling “For real? Whoa!”
“Yep. They broke through Thera’s sky, their macasphere, and have hung around ever since,” she said. “Don’t panic. Mondria’s got mega security fields.”
He was absorbing this information when they turned down another hall, this time to their left.
“How many halls are there in this place?” Hugo asked, distracted by his surroundings again.
“Don’t even try to work it out,” Willow said. “I’m usually lost after the third turn.”
Avari opened the door to the History Room and Hugo let out a low whistle as he saw the multiple levels of books.
“I know. Pretty amazing, huh?” Willow responded.
A Consuli approached them. “Goodwill to you all. I am Consuli Darek. I have a team currently analysing the city’s original designs to assist your search. We will make our findings available to you at the earliest time.”
“Thank you,” Avari told him.
Jessie and Atlas came up behind them. “So much for heading home!” Jessie said. “Can’t say I’m bothered though – this is where it’s at! Let’s find this hallowed Book!” She turned to Hugo. “You sure were an unexpected entry earlier. Nice to meet you, Hugo.”
Arising Abilities
Willow looked stoic but she was shaken by the events of the past hour. The very fact that Hugo was on Thera meant that Maliceius had somehow compromised the portal back on Earth – in her Sanctuary – where her mum and dad were waiting. She had no idea if they were even okay. She inhaled deeply trying to calm her rising fear. Avari caught her eye. Willow smiled. “I’m okay,” she said in a low voice, so the others wouldn’t hear.
“Do not allow your fear to take over,” Avari said.
“I’m trying not to.”
Atlas pressed his hand in to the surface of the glassy desk top to activate a holographic screen and keypad. “Hugo, let me demonstrate the use of our technology.”
Hugo’s eyes lit up. He sat beside Atlas, watching him closely as he tapped the keypad and then the screen, creating a number of smaller screens, each of them with different texts and images. Atlas moved the small screens around with his finger to place them out in front or out to the side. “I love this. Can I have a go?” Hugo first tapped the letter “O” and instantly a whole range of letters appeared on the screen. “What are all these things?”
“It is the representation of the letter ‘O’ from all of the different languages in the galaxies of this region,” Atlas explained. “All of the texts here may be translated to any of those languages, immediately.”
“Like the TriGamon and how it translates languages.”
“Yes. We created the TriGamon with the same capabilities.”
“I can see that many new references have now been submitted for our scrutiny,” Avari said. “I have programmed our technology to highlight an active reference on the screen. This way we will each know what is already being read.”
“So there’s no doubling up,” Willow commented.
“Precisely.”
“So what are we looking for exactly?” Hugo asked.
“Any reference to a young one or a secret left by the Ancients,” Willow said. “But it won’t be obvious.”
“I swear this chair is beginning to mould to my butt,” Jessie said, a while later. “It’s a good thing I love to read.”
Hugo flicked a screen out of the way before bringing a new one forward. He began to read a reference from a book titled, Early Mondria. After a few moments, he said, “I think I might have something. It says here that when the Ancients first began to create Mondria, they put in place security measures for the distant future. It mentions that they installed foundations within foundations beneath the city.”
“That sounds a bit like something hidden,” Jessie said.
“Hang on,” Willow said. “Where’s that clue about ‘something being hidden from the beginning’ we found a while ago?”
Avari pulled up a screen and read out, “‘within the city a distant light will reveal that which has been unseen from the beginning.’”
Hugo quickly read the other clues. “Maybe we just need to break things down a little. I mean, if something is hidden from the beginning – it could literally mean the beginning of Mondria, when they were building it, when they were building the foundations within foundations.”
“And,” Jessie said, her eyes lighting up with a realisation, “the other clues about Willow having to ‘learn to see the secrets’ and being ‘the eye of the beholder’ – Willow, you’ve already been doing that! You saw the books glowing on the shelves. You can see things we can’t.”
Hugo gave Willow a sideways glance.
“Something else I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet,” she said.
“This is great,” Jessie said. “We’ve made sense of some clues!”
“Yeah, now I just have to figure out how I’m supposed to see all this stuff,” Willow said.
“There must be something else amongst the clues that we are missing,” Avari said. “Perhaps we can go over them once more.”
The Earthlings sighed but sat quietly to listen as she began to read out some of their previous clues. She hadn’t gone far before Willow sat up sharply.
“Stop! Repeat that last clue again.”
“It says: ‘Only illusion will separate the Young One from that which is hidden. Beyond the veil will secrets be revealed’.”
Willow’s face lit up. “That’s it! I think I get it now. Remember that other clue, the one about, ‘being hidden in plain sight’? That’s the same. It’s like when you told me all about how you manipulate your space and matter, Avari. And when Oron said that all solid objects are nothing more than lots of invisible particles.”
“Go on, Willow,” Avari encouraged.
“Don’t you see? Imagine that everything in this room was almost invisible – or not quite solid. Like you could see the objects, but you could also see through them because you knew that there was heaps more space throughout the object than there was forming it.” Willow poked her finger through the holographic screen in front of her. “A bit like this screen. Now, imagine that you could see through walls or buildings too.” Willow’s whole body was buzzing with the truth of this insight; she knew she was on to something.
They all looked at her expectantly.
“Well,” she said, “by seeing through the illusion of solid objects, we may find the Book, hidden in plain sight – in the foundations of the city. That’s what the clues are telling us.” Willow sat back and folded her arms. “I think we’ve cracked it.”
“And that, folks, is what we back home call a ‘ta-daa’ moment,” Jessie grinned.
Hugo looked puzzled. “I hate to burst your bubble, but how are you meant to see through a so-called solid object? Avari and Atlas know the laws of space and matter well beyond us mere mortals and they can’t do it, or they would’ve already found the Book.”
Hugo was right. She had been so caught up with working out the clues that she hadn’t even seen this most obvious of all obstacles. Willow sank into her chair.
Avari sat up even straighter. “I agree and disagree with Hugo,” she said. “The Book is hidden outside of the frequency range that our purple eyes can detect. That is why we are unable to search directly for the Book.”
Willow looked confused. “And you failed to mention this before because …”
“Until you were ready, Willow, this information could not be revealed
to you. We cannot interfere with the order of events.”
“The Prime Directive, right?”
Avari nodded. “What I am able to disclose now, is that the Book has been hidden within a human’s visual spectrum.”
Willow’s mouth dropped wide. “It all makes sense now. Maliceius or the Vraag would never think to search through human frequencies. They would assume it was hidden within Theran frequencies. That’s so clever.”
“The Ancients are very thorough,” Avari added. “Only a select few know the full Prime Directive for the Prophecy. If Maliceius found out that a human was required to locate the Book, and that it was a specific human who could master their skills to find it, well that would be …”
“An epic disaster,” Hugo finished off.
“Precisely,” she said.
Hugo pulled himself towards the table from his slouched position. “So, can you and Atlas see through objects within your own frequencies?”
Avari nodded. “That is how we can move through the Halls of Mondria so easily. We can locate each hall by looking through the walls to find the connections that we need.” “Holy crap!” Jessie said. “You guys totally rock.” Jessie noticed a Consuli look up from his desk nearby. She gave him an apologetic smile. “Oops,” she muttered to her friends.
Willow caught a glimpse of Avari and Atlas sharing a moment: the colour of their eyes deepened briefly. “No-one knows this stuff, do they? I mean, other Light Keepers.”
“No, they do not,” Atlas replied.
“For your protection,” Avari added. “Within the city we have hidden enclosures matching a particular frequency of our visual spectrum. These enclosures would be activated and used as havens should our city ever be under siege. That would all be threatened if a human was to be taken by the Vraag and had the knowledge of how we locate these havens. We can block the effects of the Vraag, but you cannot.”
It suddenly dawned on Willow what she needed to do. “I think … I mean I’m pretty sure I know what to do,” she said. “Rather than me explaining, just watch.” She stood up and walked to the open space below the sky light, hoping that her idea was going to work. Willow gently clasped her pendant and closed her eyes. “Here goes,” she whispered.
Willow Bloom and the Dream Keepers Page 24